The Drums of Thunder Roll
by StormwalkerofLorien
Summary: Hiccup hoped for a restful life after far too many close calls for one lifetime. But with a storm brewing in the distance, coming closer by the day, legends become real and old family wounds are reopened, as alliances must form for Berk to survive alongside its dragons. My vision of HTTYD2 before the movie comes out.
1. Prologue

**All right, I suppose there are a couple things we need to address before I get started. **

**1) False Advertising. I know I talked about this story as a sequel to 'Heart of Fire and Ice'. Well, then a couple things came to my attention. The first is that while Heart of Fire and Ice was essentially Valka's back story, it was mostly drabbles and one-shots in a sort of chronological-ish order, and so it can't really have a direct sequel. Also, it would be impossible (or quite nearly so) to wrap up the Nightwalker plotline with what information we have about HTTYD2. I mean I knew that from the start, but here's the thing: There are too many holes and loose ends in the plotline where Valka was raised by dragons for me to use that in this story. **

**Now I know I'm changing Valka's back story. But what I've really wanted to do before the movie came out was to experiment. I want to delve into the possibilities of what happened to her instead of making a direct statement like 'this is what happened.' I want to explore all the plot threads I can before the film comes out. **

**So my apologies to anyone who was expecting a direct sequel. I did change Valka's back story, but I hope you guys just like Heart of Fire and Ice for the entity it is and take a look at the other idea I've come up with here. Because there will definitely be similar elements, like Valka and thunderstorm metaphors, but there will also be different elements, because I really enjoy exploring all the possibilities as to Valka's past. And this one is an interesting idea I came up with that I wanted to put down on the page. **

**2) What is this story then? Well it's my take on how HTTYD2 might go down. I wanted to write one of these before the film came out and they all became AU. And so I did. And I was going to directly connect it to Heart of Fire and Ice with the Nightwalker and all that, but then I decided I wanted to do something new and use a new idea I had. There will still be similar legends and nicknames and epic-lone-warrior-Valka who has indeed become sort of a myth, but there will be new stuff too. I just got an idea and wanted to run with it.**

**3) The Disclaimer: Yeah, this is one of those things I have to throw onto every chapter. I don't own HTTYD, I wish I did, yadda yadda yadda.**

**4) Gollum. Yeah, he'll be there in my a/n's just as sarcastic and weird as ever. I like him too much to get rid of him :)**

A worry had been growing within Stoick's heart as he searched the forest for his son. Hiccup had disappeared quite early that morning, walking off into the woods, and hadn't yet come back to the village. He supposed he was overreacting, as Gobber had bluntly informed him; after all, Hiccup was nearly thirteen years old, but his own anxiety overruled logical comforts.

"Hiccup!" he called between the trees. "Where are you?" He knew this forest perhaps better than anyone in Berk, as many years ago, his wife had spent hours upon hours dragging him between the trees and forging paths through the summer foliage. They were young in those days. They had not seen great battle, nor borne the weight of comrades' death.

"Hiccup!" Stoick shouted again, but there was no response. His eyes scanned the forest, searching for any sign of his son. Then, between the trees, he spotted the mop of copper hair that he knew and loved, clinging to an angular face that appeared even more scrawny in the pouring rain.

The boy was perched atop a boulder, his hand covering the leather bound cover of his sketchbook. "Go away," he said, his lower lip thrust forward in a childish pout.

"Hiccup." Stoick lowered his voice, his anxiety dying down into worry. "Why are you out here? This weather is terrible!"

Hiccup raised his eyebrows skeptically. "When is it not?" he muttered, his eyes still focused on the rock beneath him.

Stoick sighed. "You have your mother's wit," he said softly, as if that would diffuse the tension. "She always said things like that."

"I asked them about her," said Hiccup, his voice cracking. "I asked them today. And no one would tell me." He lifted his head, if only to appear more dejected than before. "Why won't they tell me about her, Dad? It's as if they don't even know her name, much less what she was like, or how she died. They won't say." He was crying, but he was happy his Dad couldn't tell in such heavy rain.

"Come home." Stoick laid a hand on the boy's shoulder. "Warm yourself up."

Hiccup scrunched his eyebrows together. "No. Not until you tell me about my mother." He adjusted himself on the rock and glared at his father. "You know, not even the elder would tell me. She said that my mother was brave. That's all she said. Brave. Can they tell me nothing else?"

Stoick breathed out a heavy sigh. He had known this day would come. "They don't really know," he whispered, leaning his back against the rock and looking up into his son's face. "She was… well, she was a lot like you. She studied everything, constantly analyzing the world around her, except she always acted on whims. You wonder, Hiccup, why I don't let you come outside when the dragons attack, or why I don't let you go near the training ring. I don't want you to die like your mother."

"Who was she?" Hiccup demanded. "Tell me who she was. Tell me how she died."

Stoick did not want to tell such a tale. It gave nothing but grief. Yet he felt that his son, of all people, deserved to know the story.

"They say she was mad, to tell you the truth," said Stoick, as if that was a decent place to start. "Personally, I think she was always about three quarters mad, but that was something we used to joke about. It was something I loved about her.

"We were in the training academy together," he began, his voice a bit less gruff than usual, though still bearing the hardness of a man who led his village through years of joy and despair - seen countless births and equally many deaths. Who had felt the heat of dragon fire and hot steel under his nose. This was the man Hiccup called his father, though the sense of grief was growing heavier on Stoick's shoulders.

"She was odd, to say the least. But she made it through dragon training quite successfully for someone of her size. People learned the hard way that she was stronger than she looked. She saw everything as a tool, when most of us saw weapons. I remember they day we faced our first Monstrous Nightmare, and she drove two daggers into the door of its enclosure. She stood on them and waved her arms until the beast came after her. She was just high enough off the ground to jump over it when it snapped at her. It drove the doors open, and she closed them behind it."

He chuckled at the memory. It was one of the better memories he had of her. "She was, indeed, brave," he told Hiccup to calm the lad's fears. "She was the best of us at man-to-man combat, even if she never killed a dragon. She had a remarkable mind, and a remarkable wit. And she was always somewhere else. Even as I spoke to her, her eyes were far away, climbing mountains and soaring with the seabirds. She used to sit at the trainees' table at night and tell stories, sort of like Gobber still does. But she would tell legends and fairy tales and sometimes even songs. " His voice grew somewhat wistful.

"The adults always sent us out on scouting expeditions together. I suppose they thought that I would counter her abhorrence of tradition. But I got to know her better, and even as my friends disliked her, I came to see the methods to her madness. The elders always said she would irritate them to death, with constant questioning of 'why' and 'how' but I loved her way of thinking. Of course, it was what got her killed in the end, but at the time I did love it.

"My father was not happy when we married. But there was nothing he could do. I had fallen in love with the village outcast. The one who didn't fit in and didn't care to try. Who was as tough and stubborn as a Viking but held her own principles. She was like a storm waiting to break.

"Did you know, Hiccup, that you were born on a barren mountainside, in the greatest thunderhead I have seen in my lifetime?" Stoick chuckled. "You mother, she insisted on leaving the village. She wanted me to see the setting sun break through the clouds and the first stars come out. We knew it would probably rain a bit, but we did not expect such a storm. She lay on that mountainside cursing the gods and the storm and me especially. You should have seen people's faces when we came back from that expedition, and I was carrying you in my arms. They just looked between us with expressions of pure shock on their faces. They tried to carry your mom off to the healer's home, but she would have none of it. She said she was going to sleep and no one was going to stop her. She even pulled out a dagger to ward them off, but no one really blamed her, seeing what she had been through that day."

Hiccup cocked his head to one side. He had been listening avidly to the story; after all, it was the only story he had ever heard about his mother. "But how did she die?" he interrupted. "And why won't anyone talk about her?"

Stoick laid a hand on his forehead, tension radiating from him. "A few months after you were born, she started to vanish more often than usual. She always loved the mountains, and I assumed she simply wanted to escape the stress of being the chief's wife, especially with how much she disliked some of the mandatory traditions.

"There was a dragon raid one night," he whispered. "You were only a year old or so, too young to remember. It was one of the worst we've had, and we needed all the hands we could get. Your mother was out that day, and we had no time to find her. We just assumed she would return and ready for battle.

"A monstrous nightmare came at me. I was atop the watchtower, with only my sword. It stretched out its neck and took a snap at me, and I swiped at it to make the kill. Something stopped me. Another sword sparked against my own" His voice shook as he spoke, and he leaned his arm against the rock for support.

"Someone dropped from the sky," he told Hiccup. It was the first time he had recalled this story in many years. "From where, I do not know. The figure was hooded in black, so a shadow cast over its face. It stood in front of the dragon, its arms spread to shield the beast. We fought atop the watchtower, far above the rock strewn shorelines that border endless ocean. I thought I was fighting some demon or rogue. Some monstrous guardian of the dragons.

"The platform started to wobble, and the dragon rushed forward. The figure stood between me and the great beast, and I between dragon fire and the frozen sea. I cast back my opponent's hood to see the enemy I was going to kill. And it… it…" His voice trembled in a way that Hiccup had never heard before.

Stoick took in a mighty breath and looked into his son's eyes. "It was your mother."

He ducked his head. "I will never forget the look in her eyes. She was pained to fight me, but she would not let me kill the dragon. It was her curiosity that got the best of her. She came to love the creatures that wanted us dead. Her sword was drawn on me, and she stood between the hunter and his prey. I do not know which was the hunter and which the prey. Then the platform started to give out. I reached for her, but her eyes were wild. She would not let me touch her hand. The boards gave away, and she fell. I nearly caught her, but it was too late."

Hiccup was breathing hard. Each word that fell from his father's lips was so hard to process. His own mother had betrayed the Vikings? Had fought her husband atop the watchtower and fallen into the sea?

"I searched for her among the wreckage, hoping that what fought me was only a demon with her face, or that perhaps my imagination got the best of me. But alas, we never found her. No one knows what happened, because I told no one. They shall see her as a martyr who died with courage. Only Gobber knows the truth."

"So that's why they won't tell me?" asked Hiccup, his eyes pained at the story of his mother's betrayal. "Because they don't know? Not even the elder knows?"

Stoick nodded. "To them, she vanished the day she went out. They say she was eaten by a dragon, and no one wants to contradict the theory. They tell you she was brave, because they don't know what else to say. She was not like them. Not like us. She was too curious about simple matters. And in the end, that proved to be her fatal flaw."

"Did you," Hiccup gulped, "create a grave for her, or anything?"

"I did. Someday I'll take you there, lad, when you're a bit older. It is down by the sea, and the path is hard to get to. You need to grow a bit more. Then I will take you to see her grave."

At least it's closure, thought Hiccup. Something to ease his mind. But if anything, more questions had come. _Is that my fatal flaw too? Being too different? Too curious? _Perhaps it was. But perhaps, one day, he would use that flaw to do something great for the Vikings, that would make him more a hero than a martyr.

**I like reviews. Smeagol likes them too. They're like virtual potato chips. You try to get a bigger bag of them, but then you find out it's mostly air anyway and there aren't as many chips as you thought. So, help me protest against bags-of-air in the Lays industry by reviewing :)**

**Smeagol: We can't believe you changed the storyses precious! Why?**

**Me: Read the a/n above. **

**Galadriel: I can't wait until I go back to The Hobbit and fight at Dol Guldur. This is hardly a useful pastime.**

**Smeagol: You ruins it!**

**Me: Just shut up already. Here, have a fish.**

**Galadriel: How vulgar.**

**Me: No comment.**


	2. Flying Solo

**All right there's not much to cover here, unlike with the first chapter where I had to confess for false advertising and all that. This chapter is mostly an introduction that loosely follows the first five minutes of the movie that were on a clip on Youtube. Please excuse Galadriel, Valka and Smeagol for their arguments at the bottom of the page. After being trapped in my fics for so long they're bound to get snappy.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own HTTYD2 or You Tube. Or a Night Fury. Or Galadriel or Smeagol or Gollum. If that's not clear to you by now, go get your brain checked.**

The sky was as clear as it would ever be around Berk, and none were enjoying it more than the village's youth and their respective dragons. Astrid had just taken the victory (for the tenth game in a row), which led to many complaints as to why Hiccup wasn't around to beat her. Because Hiccup was _never _around for the dragon races. Sure, he'd been to a few, won the same few, but in recent weeks no one ever saw him in the city except in the evenings when he returned with Toothless. And even then he just went straight up to his home and slept until pre-dawn light streamed over the ocean.

And then he was gone again for the day.

Even Astrid hadn't seen him recently. She knew he had been working on some sort of project, but she had been afraid to ask what. A lot of Hiccup's "projects" were more dangerous than she liked. Astrid wasn't one to shy away from danger herself, but that didn't mean she couldn't try to keep others out of peril. Especially given she'd almost lost him on a couple of occasions. One due to the Red Death, others stemming form Hiccup's own carelessness.

And if she could see him now, thought Hiccup as he clung to the back of his dragon, soaring high over the open sea, she would hurt him in ways he didn't think were possible for nearly getting himself killed in other ways that he probably couldn't fathom. But despite his occasional lack of precaution, Hiccup had planned this outing meticulously.

The leather tucked around his clothing was flapping in the wind, and he knew that it was almost time to leap. Toothless was becoming quicker in his adjustments, preparing for the dive.

"You ready for this?" he asked the dragon, and laughed when it snapped its teeth in anticipation. Indeed, Toothless was probably more ready than him, seeing as the dragon had full confidence in its ability to fly.

Satisfied with the conditions, Hiccup made a flying leap toward the ocean. It was not a suicide jump, nor was it some outlandish test of godly he had devised for himself (as he was quite aware that he possessed no such godly strength), but simply a… trial flight, he supposed. Solo gliding.

He soared toward the waves below, adrenaline coursing through his veins. He figured there should probably be more fear mixed in, but beside him Toothless was falling, his tongue lolling out and his eyes wide with excitement. If the dragon had such confidence, then why shouldn't he?

Toothless let out a short yelp, that probably translated to, 'I would snap out of it and deploy the makeshift wings if I were you,' and that he did. He threw out his arms, and the leather flaps Hiccup had fashioned to work like dragon wings did their job.

His descent slowed, and he glided forwards next to Toothless. The wind stopped roaring, and the clouds ceased to sting his eyes.

"Wow," he breathed into the cool air. There was nothing else to be said. He knew they would only have a few hours before the nighttime chilled the air, and he would have to be back at the village, but those thoughts were in the back of his mind.

"We should find a place to land," he told the dragon gliding next to him. "A new place." They had explored most of the islands around Berk, as well as the forests and mountains behind their village. And in spite of its harsh weather, harsh environment and general harshness all around - especially in relation to its inhabitants - the bleak little Meridian of Misery they called home had turned out to be a beautiful place.

Soon Hiccup's leather wings had worn their purpose, seeing as they weren't so much leather wings as a gliding suit, and one could only glide for so long between the clouds. Toothless angled his wings to the right, turning slightly and looking beneath the cloud cover. A small island jutted out from the sea to their right, shrouded in the fog of a rainstorm that had broken and passed in recent hours.

"Down there, bud," said Hiccup with a grin beneath his helm, and the dragon swooped below him, scooping up his rider once more as they descended to the land below them.

The island itself turned out to be relatively green for a rocky isle so near Berk. They landed on a ridge overlooking a small archipelago one one side and the ocean on the other. Hiccup folded his legs beneath him and pulled out his old journal, mapping their new location.

"And Dad thinks I don't get anything important done," he muttered under his breath. Toothless attempted a knowing smirk as Hiccup grumbled about being forced into responsibility. "It's only because of us than any sort of mapping and routefinding happens around here."

At this the dragon had to agree. While Hiccup had not been adjusting particularly well to the idea of being chief someday, he had readily accepted the prospect of discovering and exploring the new lands they could reach with their dragons.

Toothless nudged his shoulder, as if to say, 'we should go back now.'

"Not yet," whined Hiccup quietly. "If I get back before my dad goes to bed then I'll get another lecture about the duties of being chief and being present for the dragon races and all that."

He reached into his satchel and pulled out a tin of old fish that he generally kept to appease Toothless. A little persuasion from time to time had never done him harm.

Toothless eyed his rider suspiciously, as if he could sense he was being bribed. But after a moment of hesitation, he tore into the fish and gulped it down, hacking up a piece and offering it to Hiccup, who politely declined, having brought some fruit for himself.

Summer had finally reached them, and the trees were blossoming again. Fruit was hard to find in such parts as Berk, but if one knew where to look they could get it in generous quantities. And through all of his exploring, Hiccup knew exactly where to look.

"It worked," said Hiccup through a mouthful of fruit, his tone bearing hints of 'I told you so,' as he brought up the flight suit. The dragon had been quite skeptical at first, and just eager to prove Hiccup wrong when they tested it out as they both were to see the gliding suit in action.

Toothless narrowed his eyes, letting out a reluctant huff of defeat. He did have faith in Hiccup's dexterity; he had placed his life on it many times in the past, but this particular project had seemed a stretch. Nonetheless, the suit had pulled through after quite a bit of work and a few close calls. But Hiccup was a Viking. What most would call peril, he called an occupational hazard.

"Is that an apology?" asked Hiccup teasingly.

Toothless just flicked his ears.

"You just admitted I was right," the Viking concluded with a cocky grin.

Toothless shoved him with a hind leg.

"All right, all right," and he gave in quickly, not wanting to lose his fruit in a squabble. He gripped it tightly, as if it were precious. But he hadn't brought much food, since he'd planned to be back for the dragon races. In fact, he planned every outing so that he was able to return for the dragon races, but he had a habit of tossing his plans out the window and simply going where he pleased for the day.

Toothless laughed deep in his throat; a sound that came out more like a low gargle that the dragon trainer had become accustomed to over the past five years.

With one final glare at his Night Fury, Hiccup threw the pit of his fruit over the cliff and mounted Toothless.

"Time to go home," he said, although it seemed far more appealing to him to just keep on going. He wanted to see what was out there. Were there others who had learned to train dragons? Five years ago he might have looked over the islands and wondered what was down there that would kill him if it got the chance. Now he watched it longingly, wondering what new plants and beasts he could find down there. Toothless's wide green eyes followed his gaze.

"I know bud," Hiccup reached down and patted his scaly neck. "How about we come back tomorrow? Or we could explore the mountains near Berk. It doesn't seem like a storm will hit like the last time we tried."

Toothless snorted his discontent.

"No, we didn't nearly freeze to death. It was just a little cold and wet. And windy. Just be happy my dad didn't find out about that little escapade."

His father never worried too much anymore. He knew Hiccup could handle himself, having defeated the Red Death only five years before. But there was always that inkling of fear in Stoick's mind that his son's curiosity would be his undoing.

"Okay, we've procrastinated going back for long enough. Let's go home, bud." And without another word, Toothless launched himself into the sky, and rider and dragon set out for Berk in the light of the setting sun.

**All right, that was mostly an introduction. I've tried not to use the dialogue from the trailer, because while I want this to follow the plot of HTTYD2, I also want it to be original. **

**Smeagol: We likeses this chapter, precious! **

**Me: You always like it. **

**Galadriel: Personally I find it rather dull.**

**Me: You always find it dull.**

**Valka: If anyone cares to ask my opinion, I think for a first chapter you've done pretty well. Far better than your last first chapter. I never really like it when fanfics begin _in medias res._****When that happens you usually have a disordered plotline on your hands. **

**Me: You know the nearly all the ancient epics began _in medias res, _right?**

**Valka: That's an entirely different entity than fanfiction.**

**Me: When did you guys become so darn scholarly?**

**Smeagol: We wants fishes, now, precious!**

**Galadriel: That's entirely irrelevant to the conversation.**

**Me: I'm the author. I'll decide what's relevant.**

**Galadriel: I am the most powerful being here right now.**

**Valka: I could have my dragons off you.**

**Me: You know you two are sort of the same person?**

**Galadriel: I'd prefer if these A/N's didn't break the fourth wall. This is all just low brow entertainment for me. Passing the hours. I have far too much time on my hands, what with being _immortal _and all that.**

**Me: SHUT UP ALL OF YOU! *goes to take some asprin***

**Smeagol: Reviewses, precious!**


	3. Itchy Armpit of Destiny

**Well, here's Chapter 3. I kind of want to finish this fic before the movie comes out, so I can compare the full versions to each other. But that might not be possible, so bear with me once this whole thing becomes AU and irrelevant. Unless the movie turns out to follow this exact plot... that would be awesome and irritating at the same time... Also, feel free to correct my single-word Norse translation. I've been using baby name sites to name my OCs and other characters, and now Google Ads is convinced I'm having a baby and trying to sell me maternity wear. I guess it's just one of the oddities of being a writer.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own HTTYD. I'm not DreamWorks. Otherwise I'd have the budget to turn this fanfic into reality, and I wouldn't be writing it in the first place. Although technically if you trace it far back enough, everyone is related to everyone, so technically we'd all be related to the guys in DreamWorks, but I'm not going to trace it that far back.**

After successfully arriving home the previous night late enough to escape his father's lecturing, Hiccup rose before dawn in the hope that he could once against sneak through the village unseen. His metal foot made it difficult to slip through the house without the stairs creaking, and he winced as it landed on the bottom step.

"Son," came his Stoick's rough voice from the food storage room.

Hiccup groaned inwardly as his father rounded the corner, his hands clasped behind his back. His hair was still disheveled and he looked weary, but clearly he had risen early to catch Hiccup before he left.

"We need to talk."

"We always do," Hiccup muttered to himself.

"Sit."

As he took a seat next to his writing desk, Hiccup could only thank that his father was a man of few words.

"You're a man now, Hiccup," his father began, and Hiccup could tell he was selecting his words carefully so he could sugarcoat what he was really trying to say - _You're already twenty. Marry your girlfriend, produce and heir, and get on with your life. _But having been chief for so long, Stoick was at least diplomatic in his conversations, and the last thing he wanted was for his son to run off again.

"You have duties to take over when…" Stoick coughed a bit - "when I pass. You need to learn about being a chief of Berk. I had to learn the same things when I was your age."

_Oh no, _though Hiccup, mentally sinking his head into his hands. _Not the 'when I was your age' talk. _

"You need to attend councils and think of appointing your future advisors. And… you need to find a wife. You're fond of Astrid aren't you? Why don't you think of settling down, getting married, having a child. You are reaching the age, Hiccup, when you need to think about what you will do with your life. You will be chief someday." He laid his hand on Hiccup's shoulder, staring into his son's eyes. "Remember that."

His voice held fondness that Hiccup couldn't just brush aside. He knew his dad loved him and truly wanted what was best for him. He knew his dad had suffered over the years. But he couldn't help but resent his father for his insistence the Hiccup get married already.

"Dad," said Hiccup, "You know, when you were my age, we slayed dragons. Now we ride them. A lot of things have changed since then."

"Yes son. But a lot of things have remained. And if we are too eager to change what we have, and we do not cherish at least a few traditions, what is sacred?"

Hiccup knew what he was thinking of. He was thinking of his mother. He had only heard the tale once, but he knew his mother had died when he was very young, defending a monstrous nightmare and falling into the sea.

She had been too curious, Stoick had said. Hiccup had found the same truth about dragons, and it had made him a hero. But Stoick still feared that his son's curiosity would lead him to an untimely death.

"Dad, I have to leave now. Toothless and I… have plans. I'll take Astrid with me," he added quickly. "Don't want to miss an opportunity to be with Astrid."

That seemed to appease his father somewhat as he backed out the door and whistled for Toothless. As the dragon appeared beside him, Hiccup dashed to the residence of Astrid Hofferson and picked up a small rock, hurtling it at her window.

A sharp "Ow!" resonated from inside the house.

"Oops," Hiccup whispered to the night fury beside him. "I didn't know the window was open." Toothless just laughed deep in his throat as if to say 'you're a dead man.'

"Whoever threw that," Astrid shouted out the window, "You're head is coming off your shoulders before you have time to be for mercy!"

"Good morning to you too Astrid!" he called back to her.

Astrid looked down at the young man and his dragon, and her eyes lit with fury. "How long have you two stalkers been standing outside my window?" she demanded.

"Only long enough to throw that rock! Please don't kill me!" Because against his angry girlfriend, pleas for mercy were his only defense.

"Hiccup, you are dead!" And the window slammed shut.

"Wait!" he yelled feebly. "You should come flying with me!"

Hiccup stood by the door for a few moments before he heard bumbling, tired steps that he recognized as those of a sleepy and furious Astrid, before the door burst open. She was dressed in her usual daily attire with a fur-line hood over her face. "You said flying?" She cocked her head like a dragon. "Don't get me wrong; I'll still kill you, but I'll always go flying."

The eagerness in her face was evident. She loved exploring with Hiccup, for they always discovered something new and exciting along the way.

Hiccup grinned. "Knew you'd come around," he said cheekily, which earned him a nasty punch to the stomach.

"Don't push it, Haddock," she hissed.

"All right, all right," he groaned. "There's someplace I want to show you."

Astrid's eyes lit up at the thought of a new land to explore and call their own. There was something about being 'the first' to discover a place that got to a Viking's head.

She whistled for Stormfly, and they took off into the cool dawn.

* * *

Hiccup had the map displayed on his saddle, with hope that his drawing was accurate enough that he could find the archipelago from the previous day. With any luck, Toothless would know the course by memory, for a dragon's memory - Hiccup had learned many times- far surpassed that of any person he had met.

"What was it you wanted to show me?" Astrid inquired from where she flew beside him. The Nadder she was riding let out a soft squawk of agreement. He still hadn't told them where they were going yet, and they were getting curious.

Hiccup laughed, and as he flew even faster, all of his troubles seemed to fade away behind him. Riding Toothless was a form of stress relief for him; that much Astrid understood. It allowed him to think about things other than his father's pressures to become the chief that Berk wanted. However, she knew Hiccup didn't think that the chief Berk wanted was the chief that it deserved. After all, their customs and lifestyle had changed drastically over the course of five years, and if Hiccup became chief, it would only intensify the changes. it would be a new step toward understanding dragons further. Stoick was a wonderful chief, but if he intended for Hiccup to take his place, he had better be prepared for some tradition-breaking along the way.

"You ready to see this?" asked Hiccup, shaking her from her thoughts. He sent Toothless into a dive, speeding beneath the clouds to catch a view of the archipelago. Stormfly followed close behind, and her rider's eyes widened in shock and wonder as she caught sight of the group of islands below them.

"I save the exploring until I was with you!" Hiccup shouted, but she barely registered his voice over the roaring of the wind in her ears. The dragons and their riders pulled out of the dive as they neared the islands themselves, and Toothless narrowed his sights on a landing spot on the Northmost island. They all seemed interconnected, with barely any ocean between them, and forests dotted their slopes and valleys.

"This is beautiful," Astrid whispered as they landed on the new hillside. "What do you call it?"

"Toothless elected Itchy Armpit," Hiccup explained, "but I don't think that quite fits. So if you have a better name in mind.

"How about…" she paused in thought. "Urovior?"

"The fateful land?" Hiccup's eyebrows shot up. "What inspires that?"

Astrid shrugged. "Just some thought. Seems like something's hidden here. Don't you like to think about the possibilities of this place?" She placed her hand on her hip, realizing that Hiccup wasn't really listening anymore. "Or is the only thing going through your head an impromptu make-out session?"

Hiccup's eyes widened as he snapped out of his thoughts. "No, no," he said with a nervous laugh. "Mostly I figured…" he cleared his throat, "that bringing you with me would get us both out from under my dad's scrutiny. He's watching us all the time, as if he expects me to pop out a bunch of guests and marry you on the spot. And… well, I'm not ready to get married yet."

Astrid smile and wrapped her arm around his shoulder. "Neither am I," she whispered, kissing his cheek. "But before we start exploring our new hideout, how about that impromptu make-out session?"

**Rough and probably inaccurate Norse translation:**

**Urovior=fateful forest (roughly- feel free to correct me if I'm horribly wrong)**

**Okay, here's where we cut off… I hope you enjoyed it. Review please! Authors love reviews like Gollum loves his Precious.**

**Smeagol: We loves the precious, yes, we does! Reviewses for the precious!**

**Galadriel: Only seven more months until There and Back Again... That's all I have to get through.**

**Valka: You know, at least you're not a part of this story. At least you're not reading yourself.**

**Galadriel: I am not going to start again on the topic of philosophical implications. I thought we had come to an agreement that we were to gang up on the author.**

**Me: Wait- no! Don't gang up on me!**

**Valka: It is too late for pleas. It became too late when you wrote fifteen chapters of my soppy back story in your last fic. **

**Galadriel: It became too late when attributed the horrors of the _Great and Powerful Oz_ movie to my system of mailing Mary Sues into other universes. That movie was ruined by any standards before I got my hands on it. Slander!**

**Smeagol: I leavses now, precious. This getses ugly.**

**Me: AAAAGGGH!**

***running for my life***


	4. A Storm in the Distance

**I've been watching spoilers, because even though I don't want to be spoiled, I can't resist them when they're presented to me, and I'm so excited for the movie! I'm kind of hoping that Valka turns out like she does in my brain and later in this fic, but part of me wants to see a completely new rendition of the character. Oh, the possibilities! **

**Disclaimer: Obviously I don't own any of this. Too lazy to think up a witty statement to add here.**

"These trees…" Astrid trailed off in awe, staring up at the tall, thin trees that surrounded them. Hiccup had discovered a way to clamber down to the valley floor, and beneath a thick canopy of aspens, life sprouted wherever they placed their feet.

"Look at this flower," said Hiccup as he bent down to examine the great orange blossom more closely. He picked it by its stem and tucked it behind her ear, with a familiar soppy grin. "For you, my lady."

Astrid smirked and tugged at his arm. "Come on," she urged him forward. "There's so much more to see!" There was no path, but they were relying once again on their dragons' memories to find them. The dragons themselves had taken off and would come again when called.

There was a soft rustle in the bushes behind them, and Astrid spun around on reflex, blade drawn.

The frightened terrible terror squeaked in shock and edged further into the plants it was hiding in.

"Astrid!" Hiccup gestured to her weapon with a twinge of irritation.

"Sorry," she muttered grudgingly. "Old instinct."

Hiccup got down on his knees, holding out his hand to the small dragon. Its scales were a soft golden color that blended perfectly with the flowers surrounding them. It was obviously well adapted to its habitat.

"This is a new kind," he whispered. "I've never seen a terror this color before. And look at its horns." There was reverence in Hiccup's voice, and Astrid couldn't help but admire him. He was so curious about everything he discovered, with such great knowledge and respect of the dragons he had learned to tame.

The dragon's horns looked like pollen buds on the flowers, and its eyes were lush green. "So perfect for the place it lives," Hiccup whispered, as the terrible terror crept closer and sniffed at his hand. In only moments, it rubbed its rough head against his arm, and he scooped it up into his arms.

"Are we taking it back with us?" asked Astrid.

"I don't see great resaon to take it from its home. I'll sketch it later," Hiccup replied, setting down the golden dragon. "It's fine where it is, I would think."

Astrid nodded. Even after five years, she still couldn't read a dragons life as well as he could. She never knew whether to bring it back to Berk with them or leave it where it was. Generally the older Vikings brought back more dragons, partially out of excitement that they lived long enough to see new traditions brought to life and partially out of guilt for doubting Hiccup for so many years.

Hiccup got to his feet and glanced around. A soft wind rustled through the leaves above them, and a flock of birds squawked overhead. All was peaceful.

"I feel like…" he started, then shook his head, as if ridding an uneasy feeling. "Let's keep walking."

Astrid watched him anxiously. There was a slight but distinct tremble in his voice, that only ever showed when he was nervous or excited. But there was worry in his eyes and the quirk in his eyebrows. She may not be able to read dragons, but she could read people.

"What is it?" she asked him, her head tipped to one side with concern.

"I feel as if we're… we're being watched." He paused, and glanced around again, before turning back to Astrid. "It's just a feeling."

"Why don't we leave now?" It was strange what a little bit of fear did to one's surroundings. The breeze seemed thicker somehow, more stifling, and the trees felt like they were closing in on her. The plants opened up wide like gaping jaws, and their leaves looked like crawling insects. The thought of another, unseen presence was not something to be taken lightly. There were rogues and outcasts who lived amongst these islands, and when one cropped up, there could be deadly consequences.

Hiccup caught her eye and nodded quickly. He whistled for the dragons, and they set off for home.

* * *

The chief's hearth was burning and crackling softly as the weather began to worsen. Stoick hoped that his son and (with luck) future daughter would make it home safely. Gobber was next to him, drinking ale and telling him not to worry; after all Hiccup had survived the Red Death with "barely a scratch." Easy for Gobber to say, who had already lost two of his limbs and any sense of self-preservation.

"Don't worry yourself, Stoick. The boy will be fine."

"Gobber," he said tightly, "the last time we were out with dragons in such a storm - though perhaps for a different cause- Valka died. She died because of her own curiosity, and I don't want the same thing to happen to Hiccup."

"But she was right, wasn't she?" said Gobber, taking another swig of ale. "She was right about dragons. So what's the worst trouble Hiccup can get himself into out there."

"You know, you aren't really helping my guilt."

"I'm not your counselor Stoick; I'm just your friend."

Stoick sighed. "Do you remember her, Gobber?"

"Like yesterday."

"You remember what she used to tell me, when I was pondering my grudges and hoping I would find the heart to leave them in the past?"

Gobber shot a sidelong glance at his friend.

"She used to tell me 'old wounds may heal, but they always leave scars.' And the bitter irony of it all, is that I never understood what she meant until she died. I look at Hiccup, and I see her. I see all my pains and worries come rushing back, no matter what's changed since then."

"And you can't bear to see him fight against all these traditions that she hated too," Gobber finished for him.

"Every night I worry he won't come home. And this night especially." Stoick glanced at the door, behind which lightning flashed occasionally. "There hasn't been such a storm brewing since the night she died."

"No, there hasn't. But Hiccup will be fine. He knows what he's doing out there."

"I hope so."

* * *

"Well, that's it then!" shouted Hiccup in exasperation. "We are stranded for the night on this barren, forsaken hunk of rock that only the most generous would call an island. Marvelous."

"We can't fly through that storm, Hiccup. It's too dangerous. We'll just have to wait until it passes." Astrid watched him sympathetically, gathering sticks to build a fire. "Just be happy we have dragons to light our fire and keep us warm in this weather." She looked up at the sky, from which rain was tumbling down in massive droplets, and thunder echoed about the empty rock they were standing on.

"Astrid, this place is dead! Something came along and burned everything that was alive here! We have no food save the little we brought with us, and whatever saw fit to scorch what was probably a pretty nice swath of forest is still out there! It could be watching us right now!"

Something occurred to Astrid as she listened to her boyfriend rant. "You think?" she asked, setting down the sticks and tapping Stormfly's chin. The dragon caught her eye and lit their fire as she sat beside it. "You really think that we're being followed? I can see how worried you are. You thought we were being watched while we were exploring the Urovior, and now you're scared that whatever was hunting us tailed us here."

"Yes," said Hiccup sincerely, sitting down next to her. "That's exactly what I think. But what if it's not a dragon that's after us? What if it's a rogue or an outcast, living out some sadistic revenge fantasy against Berk? Just stalking and killing any Vikings who come this way?"

Astrid rested her head on his should and said reassuringly, "Then I'll gut him and feed him to Stormfly for trying to hurt us."

Hiccup snorted in amusement. "I could live with that."

"So you don't have the stomach to slay a dragon, but you could take out another human any day."

"Yeah, pretty much." He turned to face her. "Do you ever wonder if there are others out there?"

"Other what?"

"Other riders. If someone else has discovered what we have?"

"I'm sure someone has," Astrid replied quietly, her eyelids beginning to droop. Stormfly had curled up and was snoring softly, while Toothless caught raindrops in his mouth, showing no signs of exhaustion as of yet. "I don't know whether there's another village like ours, but maybe one or two people somewhere."

"Maybe," Hiccup whispered with a wide yawn. "We can go back in the morning. For now, let's just go to sleep, whenever Toothless shuts up and stops chasing bugs."

**Smeagol: Reviewses, my precious! We loves reviewses!**

**Gollum: We hates you all! We only loves the precious!**

**Me: You realize how awkward it is to be trapped in the middle of a schizophrenic hobbit's argument with himself?**

**Galadriel: If you haven't been to Valinor recently, then you do not know the definition of awkward. With no evil to rid from the world, no one has any idea what to do with themselves. I have been demoted from the Lady of the Golden Wood to a psychologist for Elves suffering a mid-life crisis.**

**Valka: You don't know what a mid-life crisis is until you abandon all of humanity and spend the next twenty years of your life becoming one with nature and dragons.**

**Galadriel: That was not a mid-life crisis. You could have gone back and made amends at any time.**

**Smeagol: Personally, we thinkses a mid-life crisis could really entitle selling your soul to a ring of power and becoming eternally schizophrenic sort-of hobbit.**

**Frodo: If anyone would ask _my _opinion...**

**Me: No. We have enough people arguing in this fic anyways. We don't need another voice joining in. Try someone else, no thank you, good bye. Oh, and review on your way out, would you? *hopeful grin***

**Frodo: You're desperate.**


	5. Confrontations and Family Secrets

**Surprise update! I was on a roll :) Now, my dear friends, the plot has arrived. Or at least one of the emotional subplots that will join with the main plot when the main plot shows up. But hey, with this new chapter, it's flight left early, so maybe it'll arrive sooner than we think!**

**Disclaimer: if you still think I own this, you're more delusional than Gollum.**

When they awoke, the sky was clear. The clouds had passed, and a soft mist hung over the air, even though it was still thick with smog. Hiccup did not know what could have caused such a landscape to have been reduced to embers and bare stone, save perhaps a few ashen trees, but it had clearly been devastating.

"Are we going back?" Astrid inquired, shaking water out of her saddle and offering leftover food to Stormfly.

Hiccup nodded. "That's the plan, though I don't know whether my dad will kill me for scaring him or be thankful we came back at all." He pursed his lips and kicked his foot against the ground.

"At least you know he loves you," said Astrid. "He truly does."

"Yeah, I know. I just… wish he would let me follow my own path. Forge my own destiny and live my own life. Even after everything we went through with the dragons, he wants me to follow his footsteps."

Astrid came over and lay a comforting hand on his shoulder. "It's your mom," she whispered. "When you took me to the gravesite a couple years ago, and when you told me the story your dad told you, that's what it has to be."

Hiccup lay his saddle across his dragon's back. "Yeah, I suppose," he muttered. "But I don't understand! She was right when she protected the dragon all those years ago, so why would he still be afraid of losing me!"

"It's not the dragons," she said. "It's your will. He told you himself that you were just like her. I think he's worried you will turn away from him, like she did, and die." Astrid paused for a moment, as if recalling an old tale, then continued. "You remember that day in the arena, when you had your final test?"

He nodded. "Worst day of my life."

"Do you remember how afraid your father looked? Even when he was angry, he was afraid. You could see it in how he hesitated. Now I know I'm not nearly as good as you when it comes to reading a dragon's emotions, but I can read humans pretty well. And he was scared for you, Hiccup. He's always scared for you. Will you turn away from him now, because of it?"

She had a point.

Hiccup sighed heavily. "You're right," he admitted. "We need to go back, then."

* * *

Gobber burst into the chief's house without a warning. "They say he's back!"

Stoick looked up from the still crackling fire, a new light in his eyes. "He's back?" He shook his head. "He's just like her, Gobber, and I thought I'd lost him too for a while, in that storm."

Gobber smiled with his crooked jaw. "Well she always did have a thing for nasty storms, didn't she?"

He chuckled wistfully at the memories. "Yes, she did. But come, my friend." He strode toward the door, laying a hand on his friend's shoulder. "Let us talk of happier things."

As the village had been saying, Hiccup was, in fact, back. His saddle was damp, and his face was streaked with small cuts from flying through the hail, but there was a wide grin on his face as he and Astrid greeted their compatriots.

"What was it like, flying out in that weather?" Tuffnut demanded. "It must have been insane!"

From afar, Stoick could see the two of them waving their arms and speaking proudly of their adventures. These were the moments when he felt his son could truly become chief; when he spoke of grand adventures and faraway islands, and with Astrid beside him, he had all the makings of a true leader.

"Son," came the gruff call from the back of the crowd. The excited village parted for Stoick to greet his son, and a hush fell over the young explorers and their dragons. "Where were you?" He could feel it in him again, the fear and exhaustion turning to a temper. It was something Stoick disliked about himself, but could not change, for all his strength of will. His emotions all boiled together, until worry and anxiety were mixed in with anger, and it came through in the tightness of his voice.

Hiccup met his eyes without hesitation, so unlike the boy he had raised five years ago.

"We found a new Archipelago," he said confidently. "And we got caught in the storm on our way back."

"Come," Stoick ordered the young man, beckoning for Hiccup to follow him back to the house. It was silent for a moment longer, until folk stepped forward again and continued to bombard Astrid with questions. Even with dragons, very few people found the courage to fly far outside their village. Those who dared became the celebrities for the day.

Hiccup leaned against the stairway, watching the last embers of what was probably once a nice fire burn out in the stone hearth. "Yes?" he asked, trying to keep his voice level. He knew his own indigence wouldn't save him from the lecture he was about to receive, so he did his best to keep it under control.

"You could have been killed!" Stoick bellowed, "and all you have to say is 'Yes?' We were worried sick for you!"

"Well, clearly I wasn't killed, so-"

"That is no excuse! You missed an elder council, and - did you at least broach the subject of marriage with the Hofferson girl?"

"No!" shouted Hiccup. "Because that's not what I want right now! Someday, I promise you I will marry Astrid and have slightly insane little dragon-loving heirs, but-" he shivered a little bit "but that still sounds _outrageously _creepy to me as it is. I'm still young, and I still have a life to live before I think about those things!"

"You have duties to fill! You can't just run off and get yourself killed, Hiccup! You can't just disappear in a flash of lightning like-"

"Like Mom did," Hiccup finished with a sigh of dismay. This was the topic all of their conversations came back to, ever since Stoick had taken him to see his mother's makeshift grave. It was a rock hanging in the air, waiting to drop each time they spoke. A heavy, painful subject for both of them; Hiccup because he had never known his mother, and Stoick because the last time he had seen her was when they fought atop the watchtower during a dragon raid twenty years before.

"You're not leaving the island, Son," Stoick growled. "Not until you fulfill at least a couple of your duties as the chief's only heir. You need to attend the elder councils and start worrying about battles."

"What?" Hiccup's jaw dropped in dismay. "No! You know as well as I do that there's no one out there who we need to fight, and if someone happened to come along, we could wipe them out with our dragons!"

Stoick's voice grew low and dangerous. "But _you_ know as well as I that no matter how strong you are, there will always be someone stronger, and that, Hiccup, is when you have to be smarter."

"This coming from the man who banged his head on a rock when he was my age just to prove how thick his skull was," he said, rolling his eyes.

"Just for that, you have to participate in the dragon races this time."

"I always win, Dad, it's not even fair."

"A humble victor is a true victor."

Hiccup moaned, and before he could even consider the impact they would have, the words were out of his mouth. "You just want me to be like you so you don't have to look at me anymore and see Mom falling from the watchtower at the point of your sword and the claws of a dragon!"

And he spun around and left.

"Hiccup!" the voice was furious at first, bearing all the fire of an angry dragon. But then, when he called again, he sounded strained, almost broken. "Hiccup, come back! Come back!" But he was already gone.

He grabbed his satchel from where it hung outside the door and bolted into the forest. There was still a bit of food left over from his expedition with Astrid, and if he was lucky he would find a fruit tree. There in the woods where he felt most at home, he whistled for Toothless, biting down hard on his fingers until he caught the metallic tang of blood, like a rusting sword or wet dragon scales.

He bit back tears as he mounted the black dragon, who quietly keened sympathetically as they took off into the air. Toothless glanced over his shoulder at the boy, his freckled face full of rage and grief and question. He didn't know where he was going, nor where he belonged, nor truly who he was anymore.

The dragon clicked its retractable teeth, as if to ask, _Where am I taking you? _but Hiccup just shook his head.

"Just fly as far from Berk as we can get, bud, and then we'll find a place to rest up for the night. Anywhere with shelter will do."

Without another sound, Toothless evened out his wings and soared into the brightening sky of what could have been a beautiful day, were it not for the stubbornness of Vikings.

**Smeagol: We are insultedses that you thinks we are delusional!**

**Me: You are.**

**Galadriel: I am not sure you used the term 'delusional' in the proper context. Also, my tone feels a bit like a common 'upper class learned woman' trope from theatre.**

**Me: You're not a trope. I also made you a hacker. And you read fanfic. Not many upper class theatre characters read fanfic in their time.**

**Valka: I hate to admit it, but she has a point.**

**Me: Thank you for backing me up, for once!**

**Valka: Do I get to make an appearance in the next chapter? A mysterious, dangerous appearance? Because I've always been one for dramatic entrances.**

**Smeagol: Entrances shmentrances. We always liked witty opening lineses.**

**Me: Neither of you get a say in this. Well, except Valka kind of does. And Galadriel will probably kill me if I don't give her at least a little bit of say here. So yeah, sure you get a dramatic entrance. Would you expect anything less of me?**

**Valka: ...**

**Me: Don't answer that.**


	6. Because Fortune is Unfortunate

**Wow! This chapter came out longer than I expected. Yes, we finally get a first glimpse of the character I've been entirely obsessed with even though the movie hasn't come out yet (hint: It's not Drago), even if they haven't even had a line in this fic yet except for yelling at me in my a/n's. **

**Disclaimer: Nothing's mine but the writing. And Valka's get-up in this. Because I had to do that my own way, except for her weapon, which is totally epic in the movie. Don't get me wrong; her costume is too, but I had my own whim to act on :) **

Hiccup flew for what felt like hours, until Toothless let out a slight groan of exhaustion and banked right, onto a perch nestled against the cliff they had been riding along side for a short time. Hiccup slid off the night fury's back and sat down against the cliff wall, running his hands down his face. It was the first time he had been this upset since that day in the arena with the monstrous nightmare.

"Toothless," he moaned, folding his metal foot against the ground. "How do I- do I ever go back? I feel like I've done this before; run off and spoken of never going back, but always come back in the end."

It was true. There had been many times, especially when he was young and full of confidence in himself, that he had been angry at how different he was from the other Vikings and marched into the woods, determined not to go back. Even later on, as dragons and humans were adjusting to living together, there had been times of stress when he had ridden Toothless to some mountaintop and paced back and forth until he decided he should return to the village.

"It's always the same, bud. And each time we do this, it doesn't fix anything. We should fix something, Toothless."

Toothless sighed through his nostrils and shook his head, as if to say _it's not that simple. _

"What do we do? Just wait here?" He got up and began to pace- the first step toward returning to the village. "We'll have to go back out there," he muttered under his breath. "I don't want to go back just yet. I want to mull things over."

Toothless lay down and rested his head against the stone, bidding his rider to go on and mull things over. Who better to listen than a life long reptilian friend?

Sitting down again, Hiccup drew his knees to his chest. "My father wants me to marry Astrid, and I agree with him. But he has no patience! I can't just marry Astrid in a flash and become chief. I have things I want to do. And… I'm scared. I fear they won't follow me, that they won't trust me to lead them. That I won't be as good as my dad."

He let out a long breath. "But yet, I'm scared that I _will _be like my dad. That being chief will change me. I love my dad, but I don't want to be him. I don't want to hang onto the past and the traditions like a lifeline."

Toothless let out a soft breath, and Hiccup realized that the dragon was, in fact, sleeping.

"You said you were listening," he grumbled.

The dragon snorted quietly.

"Yeah, yeah, I know. You're not a therapist." Hiccup rolled his eyes. "And you- hang on. What was that sound?"

Toothless's ears perked up, and his wide green eyes shot open again. His head lifted as he turned toward the origin of the sound. It was the loud crash of a ship on rock, grinding against the cliff side, and following it was a distinctly human voice.

"This was where I saw it disappear!" the man shouted from below them. "A small, black dragon!"

Hiccup's eyes widened in shock, realizing that they could only be referring to Toothless. Beside him, Toothless glared at the idea of being called 'small.'

"Use the dragons!" the man shouted.

"But My Lord Eret, these dragon will not obey you! They're fresh out of the wild!"

"Quiet!" snapped the first one- Eret, Hiccup supposed. "Climb the rock then!" Upon hearing that, Hiccup squared his shoulders, trying to work up enough nerve to look over the edge. It was like first spotting Toothless in that clearing. He almsot didn't want to see what these people were doing.

Finally, he nodded to Toothless, who crept farther back into the rock. He stepped forward, then got down on his belly and inched toward the edge until he could get a good look at what was below them.

What he saw chilled his blood. A massive ship was docked against the cliff side, its hull broken from scraping the rock. Six or seven men were leaning off the ship, sending picks into the cliff side and making their way up to where he and Toothless were hiding.

On the ship itself, a man stood imperiously at the wheel, and behind him were cages with dragons inside them. The dragons were small, but something told Hiccup that he wouldn't hesitate to trap larger prey. Metal hooks and ropes and the traps themselves lay interspersed with the dragon cages, some of them looking no fiercer than the nets Berk used to use during dragon raids and others downright deadly.

"Toothless," Hiccup whispered. "We have to get out of here." But Toothless shook his scaled head vehemently, gesturing to the men below them.

The would have nets to shoot, probably. If Hiccup could invent such a contraption, then surely people like these men were able to.

But at that moment he looked above him, and was even more terrified. For hanging over the top of their hideout was a great dragon's claw. And as it moved, a great roar filled the air and a shadow leapt from the rock. A massive golden dragon with flecks of brown and grey- a species Hiccup had never before seen- swooped over the ship like a hawk or owl and dove low, knocking men from the rock.

"Eret! Flee!" cried one as he fell to the sea below. The dragon let out a breath of flame and lit the ship's mast.

The one called Eret shouted, "Swim as far as we can! We can meet the other ship if we're lucky!" and he leapt from his boat and into the water. If their ships were close, they could make it; if not, they would surely die from the cold.

The great dragon soared over them, and Hiccup could make out the shape of a rider, standing proud on its back, his blade raised to the sky. He jumped from the dragon, and it picked him up in its claws. As it swooped low, the rider dropped from his dragon's claws and ran to the dragon cages. With one strike from his blade, the first cage unlocked, and the dragon flew free with a squawk of delight. He then did the same for the others, before leaping from the boat and being caught at the last moment by the massive orange dragon.

Then with the agility of a cat, the mysterious man climbed back up its dragon's leg and onto its back, where there was no saddle nor horn to hold onto, getting to his feet and holding the blade- not a sword, as far as Hiccup could see, at his side. They flew past the cave triumphantly, and Hiccup gasped at the grotesque mask over this person's face. Then, with a final roar, everything fell silent except for the soft crackles of a burning ship and the cries of men who lost a battle. The stifling quiet fell over them, and Hiccup pressed his hand to his chest in shock.

Recovering his breath, Hiccup hung around Toothless's neck. "Come on, bud! They're incapacitated! We've got to get out of here before we're spotted!" He felt a prickling feeling on the back of his neck, and events from the previous day came to mind. The thought that someone was watching them. He wondered if perhaps the rogue rider would have stalked a couple of adolescents and their dragons. He had certainly come out of nowhere.

He shoved Toothless again. "We have to go!"

Finally, the dragon relented, and Hiccup climbed onto his back. "Get as far from here as possible," he told Toothless, patting his neck. Toothless shook off his hand indignantly and took off, sticking as close to the cliff side as possible until they were over the edge.

The top was a plateau of sorts, with sparse plants growing atop it and even a few pine trees. He could see Nadders running between the trees, one just landing which Hiccup assumed was one of the dragons this mysterious rider had freed.

Hiccup did not know what to think. On one hand, he was in awe of the dragon rider. They had single-handedly destroyed a ship of men trapping dragons and released the dragons in question, all with little effort. That took an extensive knowledge of dragons that probably rivaled his own. On the other hand, this dragon rider could appear at any moment and probably fry him in less than a second. He was terrified of whoever this could be.

Toothless landed a second time to catch his breath- after all, the shock of what they had just witnessed had not completely died down, and Hiccup began to pace again.

"Who was that?" he whispered, shaking a bit. "Who in Odin's name _was _that?"

His companion shrugged his scaly shoulders and bent over to lap from a small pool of water no doubt left over from the storm the previous night.

"What are we doing, Toothless?" Hiccup muttered, digging his hands into his hair. "We should go back now. We _have _to go back and warn my dad of this. Not only are there dragon trappers in this area, but there's some crazy madman flying around who probably doesn't appreciate human very much, given the disdain with which he treated his most recent adversaries."

Toothless made no move to agree or disagree. Clearly he had heeded the earlier discussion revolving around solving something when he left Berk, but he was also shaken from their encounter.

"I just came out here for peace and quiet." Hiccup was still pacing, occasional squeaks emanating from his metal foot. "And what do I get? A battle! I'm not cut out to be chief, Toothless. I can't even stomach this whole 'war' thing. I mean, I killed the Red Death, but just watching that whole thing was like all the stress of my life packed into one moment and then multiplied by ten."

Toothless clicked his teeth, and Hiccup sighed. "Yeah, I suppose we shouldn't stay in one spot for too long, now that we don't have our hiding place." Toothless snorted quietly. "Yeah, I also know that this is my fault."

He climbed onto the dragon's back, and they took off once more, Hiccup's headache receding a bit in the cool air. But still, the hair was standing up on his neck, and he couldn't shake the feeling that they were being monitored.

As Toothless leveled his wings and evened out into a soft glide, a shadow swooped by them, larger and heavier than Toothless but just as silent. It passed them again, and Hiccup leaned down to whisper, "upwards," into his dragon's ear.

Toothless obeyed the command wordlessly, flapping his wings to reach new altitudes. But as they surpassed the evening clouds, the shadow took shape, and Hiccup came face to face with the beast he had feared to see.

The dragon was indeed a golden orange, his head bearing two frontal horns and a locked jaw. It had not two wings, but four, that added to its versatility. It appeared fragile, with its leathery wings shaped like those of a dragonfly. But Hiccup knew better. And upon its back, was what could only be described as a living ghost.

It bore a helm and mask that covered its face, and armor painted like a dragon's scales. Only empty sockets shone through the mask and scaly helm, as its eyes were shadowed and dark. It pointed its blade at Hiccup in a tense silence, and the Viking realized that it was curved on both ends like dragons' claws.

It flew beneath Toothless, surrounding it with gas that had not yet been lit. It was a threat, no doubt. One false move, and Hiccup would be nothing but a fried Viking on Toothless's back.

"Who are you?" Hiccup asked, Toothless hovering steadily like a great black kingfisher. "What do you want?" His own flying mask was over his face, and he hoped the rider would not recognize that he was from Berk. He didn't want his village in danger because of him.

The rider said nothing. He made one subtle movement with his weapon, and the huge dragon he was standing on nipped at Toothless's tail, urging him forward. And in this way they continued, Hiccup no more than a prisoner above the open ocean.

**Smeagol: Why lookses! The plot has arrived!**

**Galadriel: Six whole chapters in. I wasn't aware that you were capable of writing pre-plot fluff and emotional background for that long.**

**Valka: Yes! I get my dramatic entrance! Now for dramatic dialogue... **

**Me: You know I don't think either of you are particularly sane.**

**Galadriel: Nor are you, if you are sitting up this late at night writing fan fictions and bad a/n dialogue for a character like me. **

**Me: Fair point...**

**Smeagol: But we lovses the dramatic entrances! And we cannot waitses for the witty one liners!**

**Me: As Galadriel has so kindly pointed out to me, I'm not entirely sane myself. So you should leave reviews to brighten up an otherwise dull day. This is as close as I'll come to outright begging. I shall not demean myself any further.**

**Galadriel: You already have.**

**Me: ...**


	7. Watcher in the Shadows

**Well, this chapter turned out to be way longer than I expected. I thought it would be short. But... no can do. I'm far too excited about finally introducing Valka that I wrote more than I originally planned. Only thirteen days until the movie! And I won't be there to see it on the day it comes out. Great. Lovely. Grrrrrr. I know that my compatriots will go and see it without me. I just know it. **

**The (sort of) requisite disclaimer: I own zilch. Except for my writing and dialogue. And Valka's epic Dragon Rider costume. And my song. I'm just rattling off crap to protect me from lawsuit, aren't I? *sigh***

The rider led them to what appeared to be a seaside cliff, and from it tumbled a great waterfall into the sea. They flew beneath the foam, and the mysterious rider took the lead, still beckoning for Hiccup and Toothless to follow- and they did not dare try to escape.

To Hiccup's great surprise, a hidden cave lay behind the falls, and they flew in with the sound of Toothless shaking off the water echoed around them for what seemed to be eternity.

Hiccup slid off his dragon's back, looking around the cave. Shuffling could be heard in grottoes and around corners, and ice hung from the tops, dripping down in white stalactites that looked like pointed teeth dripping with saliva.

"Who are you?" Hiccup demanded, looking around the cave. Their captor and his dragon had vanished, leaving an eerie silence broken only by the soft sounds of moving creatures that were out of his sight. "What do you want?"

A soft hiss echoed back to him in response, between the roar of the waterfall and the stifling quiet before him. Instinctively, he drew his sword, Inferno, and set it alight, the flames casting beastly shadows on the wall so that Hiccup could not tell what was real and what was a product of his frightened imagination.

Then, in the dim light that his blade produced, he saw the dragons. They were of all size and build, some species familiar to him and others utterly unknown. He had by no means believed himself to have discovered every dragon on their side of the great ocean, but to see so many, all creeping toward him in a single cave, their jaws parting slightly to reveal their own fire, was a sight that would make even his father and Skullcrusher anxious.

Toothless hissed softly, backing away from the dragons, but more appeared behind them in the shadows of the waterfall. His sword, like a dragon's fire breath, was to determine territory. But these dragons did not fear him. Their eyes were suspicious of him, as Toothless's eyes had been when he first met his night fury years ago. But he could not train them all.

"Can you stop your dragons from attacking me?" Hiccup called into the cave, waving his sword around and causing one or two dragons to back off slightly before approaching him again. He knew the rider was there somewhere, hidden between his dragons. But there was no answer but the hot breath of hostile dragons.

Hiccup closed his eyes as tightly as he could, counting out three seconds, hoping that this nightmare would somehow end and he would wake up in Berk, back in his own bed with Toothless hanging beside him from a wooden beam.

When he opened his eyes, the rider was before them, as if he had appeared from thin air. His armor was dark and coated with scales from different dragons, all of them old and twisted with the sheen of scales that had been shed as the great lizards grew, the scales hanging down on one side to the man's ankles and on the other gone, replaced by dark trousers. His boots were small and silent against the stone, as he crept toward Hiccup like a skeptical dragon sniffing its prey.

The mask, of course, was the most terrifying. The dark helm, painted like a dragon's face with spikes running down the back and through the armor. But where the dragon's eyes should have been were dark, empty sockets like the eyes of a dark spirit.

His double ended blade hissed like a snake as the rider tapped it on the ground rhythmically, as if it were a quiet war drum building up until the climactic moment.

"Who-" Hiccup choked on his words in fear. "Who are you?"

"No," the rider spoke for the first time, and with a jolt of shock Hiccup realized it was a woman's voice addressing him in the dark. It was deep and powerful, like distant thunder on a mountaintop as the calm before the storm settles in, but it was, nonetheless, a woman. "Who are _you? _Remove your helm, dragon rider. I do not often see strangers passing through my lands, and I do not take kindly to trappers and scouts."

"No," Hiccup refused with a shaking voice. "Not until you give me a name. I mean you no harm, but I want to know your name."

The woman thought for a moment. "I am the Dragon Rider, known as the Demon Rider by trappers who fear my name." The hardness and hatred in her voice was frightening as she recalled the trappers whose ship she had destroyed. "Now _who _are you?"

"You didn't give me a real name," said Hiccup, forcing himself to sound more confident than he was.

The Dragon Rider circled Hiccup, still drumming against the cave floor with her staff, holding the dragons back for the time being. "The passers by of this land do not need my real name, for they are no more who they appear to be than I am. How are you any different?"

"I ride my dragon," replied Hiccup, lifting his chin a bit "and Toothless is my friend. I wouldn't hurt him, and I don't want to hurt you. How can I get you to trust me?" He was doing best to avoid being asked where he came from, lest he put the people of Berk in danger, but he didn't know how much longer he could talk vaguely around the subject.

"Remove your helm," the woman ordered one more time, and Hiccup by now had no choice but to comply. He unstrapped the back of his helmet and tugged it off, running a nervous hand through his hair to occupy his fingers with something to do other than tremble.

To Hiccup's shock, the Dragon Rider went rigid.

"It cannot be." Slowly, she backed away, like a frightened animal, slipping around a corner and out of sight, her dragons crouching in the shadows, mimicking her attitude.

"That face…" came a low hiss, the voice cracking with emotion. "I know that face." Hiccup could hear someone, most likely the Dragon Rider, rummaging through something, muttering under her breath.

"I _know _that face. I would know it anywhere."

"After all these years?" With a start, Hiccup realized she was deep in conversation with herself.

"Yes! You know him, Valka. You can't just forget that easily."

"But you can't tell him either. Odin knows what his father's told him about you, or if he even knows how you died."

"But clearly I'm not dead…"

"Yes you are! You died that day, even if your body is still living. Your soul died that night."

She huffed quietly. "Don't be so melodramatic. I have a life here, thank you very much."

"You should tell him," she reminded herself.

"Don't be a fool! Even if it is him, he wouldn't know you. And it could be someone else entirely."

"I held him in my arms," she murmured, and her dragon-like mutterings and hisses died down into silence. "I held him in my arms when he was but an infant. I know those eyes like I do my own. It must be him." She spoke with finality, rustling about out of sight.

Hiccup concentrated on clearing his memory. How would he know someone like this? A lone dragon rider skulking about these cliffsides. But the name was familiar to him. _Valka. _He thought he had heard it before somewhere, although he couldn't put his finger on it. In a moment, the Dragon Rider reappeared, although her own helmet was gone, and in the dim light Hiccup could just barely make out her face.

She had a sharp jawline crooked to the left, as if it had been dislocated in a fight, and deep green eyes so like his own that for a moment Hiccup was mesmerized by them, as if he was looking into a mirror. Her face was hard and world-weary, but she there wa an air of primeval wisdom about her in the way she moved and spoke. Hiccup could not tell whether her lips and nose were crooked on her face or the other way around, as dragon fire flickered behind her like ghostly candle lights.

"Hiccup?" she whispered, drawing back her weapon and watching him carefully.

"How…" he gaped. "How do you know me?"

She opened her mouth to speak, then closed it again. Hiccup couldn't quite tell in his imagination whether she was a human, a dragon, or something else entirely as she lifted her staff, laying its tip on his shoulder and guiding him to the right.

"Come," she beckoned, leading the way with her hand held forward, and the crowd of dragons parted before her. Hiccup followed with Toothless, not quite sure what to say or how to react. She seemed to know him, and indeed she was familiar, but he could not put her face to memory. Even the name was vague, as if he had never spoken it properly aloud.

She led him through corridors and along narrow passages, each lined with dragons of different size and shape. Some were so small they nearly crawled through, and terrible terrors lined the stone walls.

"What is this place?"

The Dragon Rider turned around. "My home," she informed him curtly and leading him on through the tunnels.

"Where are we going?"

"You ask a lot of questions."

Hiccup groaned. "Well I'm sorry for being curious when someone kidnaps me out of the blue and acts like they know who I am."

She paused in her tracks and looked him in the eye, suddenly laying a reassuring hand on his shoulder. "Never be ashamed of curiosity," she told him sincerely, without a hint of the brisk, sardonic attitude she had shown as they walked. Then she shook her head, as if clearing of unwanted sentiment, and said, "but I would prefer if you keep your mouth shut until we get there. The terrors are trying to sleep."

"Oh," muttered Hiccup grudgingly. "I'm sorry if I disturbed your lizard friends from their evening nap." In truth, he didn't even know the time of day anymore. The cave was dark on all sides. But he assumed it was late evening, judging by how much time he had been in the caves. But then, if he had learned one thing when he was a teenager, it was that how much time something feels like and how much time has actually passed were two very different things.

They rounded a bend, and Hiccup found himself in an opening in the tunnel, with only a rock blocking it. "Now what?"

She turned around and grinned. "You can climb. I've seen you." She stepped up and climbed the rock with the grace and ease of, as Hiccup noted with no surprise, a night fury. She was more like a dragon than a person, and he came to the conclusion that she had not seen another person in many years. Or at least one that she hadn't killed.

Then something occurred to him, as he turned her words over in his mind. "You were the one watching me!" he burst out. She hung by one hand and glanced at him.

"You knew I was following you?"

"I knew someone was, but you just admitted to it."

She pursed her lips. "So I did. Come."

"But you have to tell me-" Just then she vaulted over the top of the rock and vanished from sight like she was so apt at doing, and Hiccup had no choice but to follow her. He climbed as quickly as he could, but he was not as accustomed to this place as the woman who lived there.

When he came over the barrier, he was in a forest.

The grass was short and uneven over the bare rock, and a massive cliff rose up behind him. "Where are you now?" he shouted, sighing at how pathetic he sounded, but without the Dragon Rider, he would be lost in this place.

"Do you remember now?" came a voice behind him, and he was shocked to find the Dragon Rider crouching on a small ledge twenty feet above him, she crept down the rock and got to her feet, watching Hiccup with each step.

"Do I remember what?"

She rummaged through a sparse bush and procured a small satchel and from it, a sheet of parchment. Hiccup gasped. "Is this from my notebook?"

"Was," she corrected with a small smile. "I keep it here so no one can get to it. I'm the only one who knows the way around these passages. Folk of old were known to get lost and die here, but," she shrugged, "I haven't found any carcasses yet."

She seemed more of ease now that she was out of the tunnels. Less suspicious of outsiders. Clearly she trusted him a little if she was taking him to this place.

She hanged Hiccup the sheet of parchment, and he flipped it over. One side had an old drawing, and the other words from a poem of sorts. He read the song aloud.

_The dead be rolling in their graves_

_As if they thank the living ghosts to roam_

_Their queen is whispering in the winter trees_

_With rattled winds and broken stones_

_She is the lord of time and stormy skies_

_Adorned in mist and bones_

_She is the queen of Pyrrhic victory _

_Upon her broken throne_

_And so she slips between the mountains_

_And she dances in the empty halls_

_Of men who lit the seas aflame_

_And fortune chose to fall_

_The walker of the night is speaking_

_Listen well and your deeds may be atoned  
_

_To the queen of Pyrrhic victory_

_Upon her broken throne_

He gaped. It was an age old myth that he had been told when he was young. He flipped the page over to find a sketch, and his marvel grew. It resembled his own drawings, with the same steady hand, but it couldn't have been made by him. There, in the picture, was his father, but the lines were gone from his face and his eyes were not worn from duty. And in his father's arms was Hiccup himself, no older than an infant, lying peacefully in a woolen blanket, his eyes wide with wonder of the world.

His voice was shaking as he asked, "How do you have this?"

The Dragon Rider lowered her eyes. "Because it was I who drew it."

And then it all came flooding back. The woman's voice, so familiar to him but so far away, returned to his memory, singing quietly the myth of old that was scratched onto the page. Her voice was a low rumble, still faint, but the same distant thunder.

He heard his father's voice, deep in memory, telling him stories as a boy, "Your mother?" he chuckled. "She was a force of nature."

Valka. The name surfaced again, floating on a frozen sea. Etched into a broken tombstone worn and washed by the tide. Why hadn't he seen it before? He looked down at his own hands.

"Hiccup?" whispered the Dragon Rider. "My son…"

And she embraced him at last.

**Me: Hallelujah! Valka's finally made it into the story!**

**Valka: I will concede that I got my dramatic dialogue.**

**Galadriel: I still dislike you both.**

**Me: Then why are you still reading?**

**Galadriel: After forty-thousand years of living in Middle Earth, you tend to get bored easily. Nothing's new anymore. And so when I discover something like fan fiction, it's a jackpot of new ideas. **

**Me: Point taken.**

**Smeagol: You nearly forgotses about me, precious! How dares they! We likes the dramatic dialogueses precious. **

**Me: See, Smeagol is on my side.**

**Galadriel: Smeagol is a schizophrenic ex-hobbit with multiple personality disorder and a romantic attachment to a demonic, possessed piece of jewelry.**

**Me: *quiet consideration***


	8. The Lair of the Bewilderbeast

**Hi, everyone! I'm back with chapter eight. I'm on a roll, now that Valka's in the story. More motivation to write. *insert evil laugh here* However, the next chapter might be a while before it's up, because I'm going to be gone for a good while in about a week, so either chapter 9 or chapter 10 will be the last before the movie comes out. Either way, I'm so excited for the movie, even though I WON'T BE ABLE TO SEE IT UNTIL I COME BACK. I HAVE TO WAIT A WEEK. And then it'll get spoiled for me by my comrades. Lovely.**

**Disclaimer: Yeah, yeah. I don't own HTTYD. I know. I'm not making cash off this (although that would be a nice side benefit) and only the writing is mine. *sigh* If someone knows how I could get the rights to this movie I'd love to hear it. Note: isn't buying a product from someone technically a form of legal bribery. I mean, you're paying them so that they give you their product. Technically that's legal bribery. Huh.**

Valka released her son only after a baby dragon had clambered onto her back and the need arose to swat it away.

"Is this…" Hiccup stammered, his mouth still open in shock, "Is this where you've been? After all this time?"

She dipped her head, and there was something in her face that Hiccup could now place. It was recognizable in his memories. It seemed more human than it had when she first captured him. Emotions swirled and danced across her eyes that she had suppressed before, and she seemed more at east speaking with another living person than she had been. She was talking to him now, and not just to herself.

"It was Cloudjumper who caught me when I fell," she said, gesturing to the massive orange dragon now perched on the cliff behind them. Hiccup didn't know how it had gotten there, but he supposed there had to be more than one entrance to this hideout. Then her eyes grew misty again, and fear clouded them. "Did he- did your father tell you? How I died?"

Hiccup only nodded mutely in response.

"What did he say? To you, I mean?" She pursed her lips bitterly. "I know what he said to the village."

"He told me you were brave. But that it was your curiosity that finally became your fatal flaw." He thought back to earlier in the cave, when she had stopped in her tracks and instructed him never to be ashamed of his curiosity. Her voice had born the long-standing bitterness of someone who had a lot of time to think about which grudges were worth holding.

Valka snorted. "_He _thought it was a flaw. It brought me all this." She gestured grandly with her weapon, which Hiccup could now see also doubled as a sort of staff, at the hidden oasis around them.

"You found this place then?" Hiccup could not conceal his amazement.

"Cloudjumper brought me here. He left me in this patch of grass, and I decided to do what I've always done best: explore."

Then she cocked her head for a moment, considering her next words carefully before asking him, "Stoick- he did tell the village that I had betrayed them, didn't he?"

Hiccup shook his head, surprised she would make that assumption. "No, he never told anyone what happened to you, except for Gobber and me. Everyone else just thinks you were eaten by a dragon."

For a moment, she was silent. He thought he caught the left corner of her mouth lifting into a reluctant smile, but then her lips tightened, and she looked away from him, out into the oasis. "This is where I have lived, for all of those twenty years," she told him, deliberately changing the subject. He could feel the aura of tension hovering around her at the mention of the man who was once her husband.

For the first time, Hiccup focused all of his attention on his surroundings, and what he perceived was, in a word, remarkable. Above them was a roof of ice, hanging down like massive arcs and even pillars. The sky opened up somewhere to his left, where sunlight streamed down, lighting up the ice so that it glittered blue and silver. Dragons were everywhere, baby Nadders scrambling all over the ground and larger dragons flying about. Water tumbled from holes in the rock, and a cliff wrapped around the dome, behind which Hiccup assumed was the sea. He stepped forward, looking up, and Valka gripped his shoulder.

"Careful," she said with a low chuckle. "There's an edge."

It was true. Just a few paces in front of him, a great overhanging ledge led down to the bottom of the dome, where he could see more shapes moving. "How far does this place extend?"

"It's a dragon sanctuary," explained Valka, "And it reaches as far as you can see. But I consider my territory to include the islands beyond as well."

"Urovior?" Hiccup asked incredulously. "You control that place?"

"Well, I wouldn't exactly call it 'control.' More like keeping watch. Making sure the trappers don't catch any dragons." She gestured wildly with her hands as she spoke, every movement dynamic. She was constantly alive with energy, renewed at the discovery of her son.

But Hiccup's eyes were elsewhere, settling upon a truly massive dragon in the center of the dome. If he'd thought Cloudjumper was big; if he had thought that the Red Death was big, then this was truly a king of dragons.

Valka looked at the creature. "It is the Bewilderbeast," she told him, reverence coming through in her voice. "He is truly the lord of fire and ice. A king of our dragon's nest, yet he breathes clouds of snow. He created this sanctuary."

Looking around him in awe, Hiccup watched as the Bewilderbeast opened its eyes and got to its feet, turning in circles a couple of times before settling back down to sleep. Valka turned away, striding back toward the cave entrance.

"Wait!" called Hiccup, and she turned around. "I have… questions." His voice stuttered a bit. "You owe me answers." His voice gained a bit of its former confidence as he spoke. "This is beautiful place, but you kidnapped me, and there are things I want to know."

She cocked her head, smiling slightly. "You do ask a lot of questions. Very well; what do you want to know?"

When the time finally came to inquire, Hiccup was struck dumb. What does one ask one's long lost mother, who turns up after twenty years only to be part dragon inside?

"I suppose… well… when did you discover that dragons weren't all the Vikings made them out to be?"

"It was just after you were born. I was watching the new recruits, and I decided to do some research on my own, to take my mind off the chaos of living in the village. And what I found out contradicted everything we had ever learned."

Hiccup considered this. She had discovered years before what he knew now.

"Why didn't you show the village? That's what I tried to do."

Hiccup had piqued her curiosity. "You showed them? You tried to change them?" She snorted disbelievingly, whether at Hiccup's statement or her own cynicism he couldn't tell. "How did that go?"

"Badly, at first," he admitted, "but now we all have dragons. We have food and accommodations for them in the houses and all over the village."

Valka looked shocked. "And what did your father do?" Hiccup had no doubt she was remembering her duel with him twenty years before.

"He panicked, at first, but-"

"Well I'd imagine. He hates being told he's wrong. Especially when his knowledge is his lifeline."

Hiccup continued, ignoring her remarks. "He did panic, but he came around after we killed the Red Death."

"That was you, who defeated the Red Death? My, this is informative. I knew the dragons looked healthier." She smiled again, the gleam returning to her eyes. "I'm so proud of you."

"May I continue please?" He was nearly shouting now. Valka nodded curtly, a smug smile still on her face.

"Why didn't _you _try to show Berk what dragons could do?"

"I-" she stopped, going silent, and for a moment Hiccup thought she might revert back to conversation with herself, as she seemed to do when presented with a hard dilemma. "I was afraid," she admitted finally. "I feared my own capabilities, and lack of. There was still so much I didn't know. All those years of people doubting me and telling me I was wrong finally got to my head, I suppose. And I began to wonder what I had become, fraternizing with dragons, until there was a full on duel in my head over what to do. The timidity won over, and I kept it hidden until your father found out on his own. And you know what happened after that."

"Indeed I do. But why didn't you ever go back?"

"I was angry. At them, for never listening to me. At your father, for not believing me when I told him dragons were harmless. At myself, for letting this happen."

Hiccup thought about this. It sounded exactly like him, the day he had been ordered to kill the Monstrous Nightmare. When he had gone to Toothless and demanded that they fled. But then he had changed his mind; decided that perhaps the other Vikings could listen to him and adapt. Maybe that was the only part of him that came from his father: the optimistic part.

"In all fairness," Valka broke in, "I think I get to ask a couple questions too, the first being why and how you showed up here, so far from Berk."

"I-" He stopped short. He was doing exactly what she had been doing for twenty years: running away. "There were things I needed to think about."

A knowing smile flickered on her lips. "You were fleeing."

With nothing else to say, Hiccup nodded sheepishly.

"Why?"

"For someone who wanted me to shut up eariler, you ask a lot of questions as well."

Valka smirked. "Be careful, or you'll find out where you get your wit from," she said playfully. "Honestly, though. I want to know why you left."

"Dad wants me to start building myself up like a real chief. Settling down and marrying Astrid. I mean, Astrid is wonderful, and I love her, but I can't do that yet. I want to live my own life, not my father's."

"If it makes a difference," Valka told him, climbing onto a small boulder and sitting down, "I was probably even more eccentric than you when I was that age, and I turned out all right."

Hiccup coughed conspicuously into his hand.

"All right," she admitted. "Maybe 'all right' is too strong a word."

"Only in the context of your mental health," muttered Hiccup. If 'all right' meant spending twenty years in a massive cave hideout with no one to talk to but yourself and your dragons until you became some sort of lone, vigilante reptilian freedom fighter then Hiccup could consider himself absolutely perfect in terms of his own sanity.

But in truth, he was coming to admire Valka, if he was willing to admit that to himself.

"Come with me," she instructed, leaping from the rock and striding back into the caves. "I can show you your quarters, and tomorrow you shall discover the secrets buried within the sanctuary. You seem like the type of person who would marvel at undiscovered dragons." She shot him a grin before disappearing over the rock and silently slipping through the passages on the other side, leaving Hiccup to follow her back into the caves.

"Mind you," she called over her shoulder. "I would prefer if you didn't get yourself lost up in here. I haven't found any carcasses yet, and I'd hate for you to be the first." There was a jest in her tone, but she was dead serious.

His days were about to get stranger. Much, much stranger.

**Well, we're about to enter the realm of Valka's crazy sanctuary. Oh believe me, you thought you saw it in this chapter? Well we've only scratched the surface! *insert another evil laugh***

**Smeagol: Fluffses, precious! We loves fluffses!**

**Galadriel: *snorts contemptuously* I liked her better with the mask over her face. Far more dangerous looking.**

**Valka: You're missing the point entirely.**

**Me: Does this mean you've turned against each other and stopped ganging up on me?**

**Valka: the only reason I'm *kind of* on your side now is because you gave me armor made of discarded dragon scales and an epic costume, and lots of dramatic dialogue. **

**Galadriel: You should be insulted that she managed to work the Smeagol/Gollum thing into your character.**

**Me: Well it wasn't Smeagol/Gollum. She wasn't debating between good and evil. She was just talking to herself.**

**Valka: Not I'm not so sure what to make of the whole thing.**

**Galadriel: wreaking havoc upon character/fanficcer alliances since before fanfiction existed.**

**Me: How is that possible? Actually, never mind. It's too late at night to discuss paradoxes.**

**Galadriel. Wise decision**

**Smeagol: Reviewses, precious! We loves reviewses!**


	9. IMPORTANT: AUs, HTTYD2, short vacation

**A Note on AU Universes and what will happen to this fic once the film comes out:**

**I know we're all massively looking forward to HTTYD2. The next chapter of this fic will not come out until after the movie, because I will be on vacation for a while. I'm going to see HTTYD2 when I come back, and I hope everyone really enjoys it. But there are a couple things that must be addressed.**

**The first is what will happen to this fic once the movie comes out. Obviously the movie won't turn out exactly like this, so this fic will eventually become AU. I won't be adjusting what happens in my story to fit the movie plotline; anything I've written that is different than the movie stays. As in, Valka's back story will probably be different in the actual movie, but that ain't changing. I like my own version for this fic. **

**Also, I know a lot will happen in the movie that I'm not planning on writing. Once this fic becomes AU I'm still not going to follow the movie exactly once I know what happens. I'm going to use my creative license and after I see HTTYD2 I will be continuing this how I please. It's just for fun anyway, and I like writing this. This is my own rendition of the events, after all, and so it won't follow the movie exactly once it comes out. **

**Plus I'm sort of OCD where events and dialogue are concerned. I have to tweak things and make them different or else they don't feel like the writing is mine. So yeah, this will continue to be MY version of events with creative license and soon to be AU for the rest of this story.**

**I'll be enjoying my vacation, and I will have the next chapter for you in a couple of weeks! Everyone I hope you go see HTTYD2 and I hope you enjoy it immensely. Thank you all for your support in this fic so far :)**

**-Stormwalker of Lorien**


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